Advisers

on the rebuildingsociety.com blog

Here at rebuildingsociety.com, we’ve been working hard to bring you a range of good quality borrowing applications for you to consider.

We are constantly reviewing and improving our processes to ensure that we both maintain and improve the variety of lending opportunities we can present to you.

We have recently changed the way our application process works, and this blog post is intended to notify lenders of our most recent change, along with how the change will affect the listing information presented for your consideration.(more…)

Having operated a P2P lending platform for over five years, we’ve seen many investment strategies and styles and would like to share some of these with you. However, firstly you should acknowledge that every investor’s risk appetite is different. As with any investment, it’s important that you consider the risks and your personal circumstances before making any investment. The following tips are intended to educate and provide non-personalised guidance to assist.(more…)

rebuildingsociety.com has been awarded full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority in recognition of our compliance with sector-specific regulations.

We are very excited to share news of this major achievement and important milestone with our community. Authorisation means that we meet the rigorous standards set by the FCA and that we can soon start to offer the Innovative Finance ISA.

Although we have been operating under FCA rules on Interim Permission since April 2014, being granted full authorisation helps us to continue building on the important relationships of trust we have with all our clients. We are proud to have achieved this milestone ahead of many other platforms, which we believe is testament to our small but dynamic team, systems, processes and controls.

Navigating your way through a loan process can often prove to be challenging and may seem like a long road obfuscated by a fog of red-tape and administration.

At rebuildingsociety.com we have made our processes as simple and transparent as possible to help you navigate the path to a successful loan application. You can either refer to our handy flowchart or digest the information below.(more…)

Following the success of the inaugural event in 2016, FinTech North 2017 is once again set to take place during Leeds Digital Festival week and aims to attract 350 delegates and support from the FinTech community in the Leeds City Region, across the UK, and internationally.

FinTech North 2017 will be hosted on the 26th April 2017 at aql in Leeds. The goal of the event is to generate collaboration and knowledge share within the financial services and technology community and to generate tangible economic benefits for the region.(more…)

Assets can often be purchased through a hire purchase agreement, but where this option is unavailable a business loan can fill the funding gap and allow you to spread the cost of potentially expensive equipment. In some instances the asset can act as security for the loan which will somewhat reduce the risk.

In 2015 more than £29 billion in finance was provided by members of the The Finance & Leasing Association to assist with asset purchases. This figure is further boosted by the work being carried out by the Peer-to-Peer funders who offer an alternative route to finance outside of the traditional sources.(more…)

In 2014, Candy Hero Ltd. came to rebuildingsociety.com looking for an influx of funds in order to expand. They planned to use the investment to boost wholesale sales, strengthen equity and then open a new UK store in time to maximise Christmas time sales.

Candy Hero Ltd. was founded in December 2008, by two entrepreneurial siblings with a mission to bring unique, specialist and delicious sweets from all over the world to sweet-toothed customers in the UK and Europe.

The online shop was launched in 2009, to be followed later by high street shops in York and Leeds. Visit one of their shops, and prepare to be tempted by Birthday Cake Golden Oreos, exploding cinnamon candy, Nerds, giant lollipops, wasabi candy and boxes of Jelly Belly Buttered Popcorn Jelly Beans, to name just a few from the vast collection. The 10,000 square foot warehouse in Bradford sees around 4,000 unique product lines carefully handled by employees individually chosen to fit the company’s high energy, innovative ethos.

The sweet importers and retailers’ first loan application was a great success; brothers and co-owners Frank and Leo managed to raise the target £50,000 from investors. Candy Hero Ltd. invested the money they raised into the wholesale distribution of imported sweets, snacks, and groceries. They decided not to open a shop, as they were unable to find an adequate unit within their chosen city. Instead, they focused on their online sector. In the last two years, the company has:

grown turnover significantly; 2015 to 2016 saw 83% growth

increased their stock-holding capacity from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet

acquired a great number of additional wholesale customers

built a proprietary pre-order system

co-ordinated a huge UK product range comprising around 10,000 lines available for pre-order and export

“They provided a smooth process prior to listing the application, support throughout, and a platform that is clear and easy-to-use. Rebuildingsociety is a very impressive social business that is a powerful tool when you need extra finance above and beyond what may have been already possible.”

Perhaps one of the keys to their online funding success was the company’s open-door policy. Frank discusses business with his team quite openly, “from the top to the bottom of the organisation, in response to any question.” Therefore, he embraced the discussion forums available on rebuildingsociety.com, believing that “talking business with lenders in a peer-to-peer environment with the same openness and clarity builds up the confidence to invest in us.”

Now, Candy Hero is back with a new loan application. The return borrowers are well-supported by rebuildingsociety’s lender base, something they hope will help them fund their £300,000 loan application. If successful, the team plan to refinance £184,000 to achieve cheaper interest per month and fewer capital repayments per month, and use additional capital to add to the stock cycle.

When asked why they decided to return to Rebuildingsociety, Frank explained that while their bank is very supportive, recently offering them a new import loan facility, they cannot approve a loan of this size. As he commented: “The only method of gaining a loan of this size would be crowdfunding and the only place I want to crowdfund is Rebuildingsociety.”

Read about the company on their website, and find out more about their loan application at rebuildingsociety.com.

Lending to businesses carries risk. Past returns are not necessarily a guide to future returns. Any unrepaid capital is at risk of arrears or default. To find out more please visit http://reb.so/risk

We’ve been working hard to bring you good quality borrowing applications for you to consider. Currently businesses that are eligible to borrow through rebuildingsociety.com, must have at least two years history, an average turnover of £50,000 a quarter and offer at least a personal guarantee as security. The average final rate paid by borrowers on our loan book is over 20% APR*, this rate is paid usually regardless of the security offered in support of the loan.(more…)

FCA, TCF, FOS, OFT, PRA…As a lender on a peer-to-peer site, these are all acronyms you may have come across. But do you know what they stand for and what the regulation means for you as a lender? In this post, we take a closer look.

The Financial Conduct Authority (aka The FCA) were formally known as the Financial Service Authority and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

In 2013, the FCA was formed, taking over the operations of the FSA and the OFT and at the same time also creating the PRA, the Prudential Regulatory Authority, the authority that regulates the banks and insurers.

There is a lot of work which goes on behind the scenes from the point when an application is first submitted until the point at when it goes live on the marketplace.

To give you an idea of the time involved, the borrower team spend an average of nine days on the assessment phase of an application, from the initial submission to listing.

This time is spent analysing the prospective borrower’s submissions, assessing the accounts and security submitted, asking pertinent questions about the business, liaising with the applicant to get more information on their business or additional security to support their application and, when identified, requesting amended accounts in circumstances where accounting errors are spotted, to ensure that the figures presented to lenders are as fair and accurate as possible.

First and foremost, however, a listing must meet our basic lending criteria, and we filter out those that don’t at the first instance. Our five basic criteria are as follows:

1) The applicant must be a limited company.

We do not offer loans to partnerships, sole traders or individuals. Limited companies are by law separate legal entities from their directors or shareholders. This means that there is a clear legal distinction between personal finances and the finances of the business. We can assess the strength of the business purely on its own merits and look at the personal finances of any directors or shareholders separately to assess the suitability of security.

A Limited company is required by law to produce fair and accurate accounts to be filed at Companies House available to the public record every year, along with an Annual Return listing directors and shareholders. This allows us to cross-reference accounts submitted by applicants with those filed at Companies House, an important security check we conduct on every application before listing.

2) The company must have two years or more of trading history.

Recent statistics suggest that up to nine out of every ten start-up businesses will not survive past the first two years. The risk of failure usually reduces after each year of successful trading. We require all businesses we list to have at least two years of prior trading history. This allows us to mitigate the risk of failure by only listing businesses which have already survived the most risky period. It also gives us at least two years of business accounts to assess, and lets our underwriting team get a more accurate idea of the business, adjusting for one unusually good or bad trading year.

3) The business must be profitable and must have a turnover sufficient for our affordability criteria.

As part of our lending criteria, we require that every business we list must have made a profit in the last two years of trading. On top of this, we also use our bespoke risk tool to calculate whether the loan repayments are affordable, taking into account factors such as the business’ turnover, net profit, liquidity and the equity/debt ratio.

4) The business must meet our risk rating requirements.

Along with affordability calculations, our bespoke risk tool also gives each application a risk grade from A+ to F-, factoring in a myriad of criteria from turnover, profitability and growth to liquidity, credit rating, repayment history and creditworthiness.

Any business which scores a D+ or below is rejected. If a business scores C- or higher, should it also meet our security and affordability criteria, it is listed on the marketplace with the appropriate risk rating.

5) The business must also meet our security requirements

Before making it on to the marketplace, businesses must fully satisfy our security requirements, which are considerably higher than most of our competitors. Firstly, unlike some other platforms, all of our loans are backed by Personal Guarantees as a minimum. For any loan request in excess of £50,000, we also require additional security in the form of a Debenture or a Legal Charge over Property.

In addition, in order to try and ensure the greatest prospect of recovery should a loan default, we also require that the total value of all security offered must cover the full loan amount requested. Our underwriters determine the value of each form of security offered by a prospective borrower and should the sum be less than the full loan amount, the borrower will be notified that additional security will be required in order to list.

The above 5 steps are just the first part of underwriting process. Once these initial checks have been done, the application is then pre-approved to undergo further, more stringent assessment.